Following the service, at 12:00 noon, Mayor Don Plusquellic and students from Goodyear Middle School will ring a historic bell that will begin the ringing of church bells throughout downtown Akron, just as they were in Akron on the day Brown was hanged, December 2, 1859. On the day of his execution, bells rang; flags flew at half staff in Akron, the courts adjourned, and stores closed.  

Historian Paul Finkelman will deliver remarks at the 11:00 service. Finkelman, the William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law at Albany (NY) Law School, is the author of "Terrible Swift Sword: The legacy of John Brown" (Ohio University Press.2005,) and "His Soul Goes Marching On - Responses to John Brown and the Harpers ferry Raid," (University Press of Virginia, 1995.)

Finkelman is an expert on the legal history of slavery and constitutional law. This marks a return to Akron for Professor Finkelman, who held the John F. Seiberling endowed chair at the University of Akron School of Law, 1998-1999.

Akron’s First Presbyterian Church, organized in 1831, was divided by the issue of slavery in 1859, and the present day congregation descends from the anti-slavery faction of the church.

Pastor Mark Ruppert will deliver an invocation. The history of the church will be offered by the church’s historian Edie English.

The ensemble Exalting Him will perform "Lift Every Voice and Sing," also known as the "Negro National Anthem;" and "Blow Ye the Trumpet, Blow," John Brown’s favorite hymn.

Area vocalist Carla Davis will close the ceremony with the song first created in memory of John Brown - "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Accompaniment will be provided by church organist Heidi Guttermuth (GUT er mooth).

JOHN BROWN

John Brown called Akron "home" for the better part of the decade preceding the Civil War - not that he ever stayed in one place for long. Born in Connecticut in 1800, raised in Hudson, he apprenticed in Kent (then Franklin Mills.)

An expert breeder of sheep and respected authority on wool, Brown accepted the offer of Col. Simon Perkins - the son of Akron’s founder - to reside in the cottage that sits today on Diagonal Road.

With his second wife Mary and nine of his 20 children, Brown resided in Akron at various times between 1843 and 1854.

Brown’s religious convictions led him to oppose slavery. While working with Perkins, he remained an active abolitionist and regularly housed slaves moving through the Underground Railroad in his Akron home.

In contrast with the northern pacifist attitude, Brown believed that militant actions were the only way to end slavery. In the mid-1850s, he organized covert attacks in an attempt to liberate slaves and bring down the pro-slavery establishment. In 1859, with a company of 21 men—white and black—he led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

He led the raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in what is now West Virginia, supported with cash and weapons from his "old friends and neighbors" in Akron.

He was captured by Col. Robert E. Lee of the U.S. Army, and hanged for treason on December 2, 1859. While historians agree that Brown’s actions helped spark the Civil War, his dogged determination and the violence of his methods have been hailed as both heroic and foolhardy.